"A young man’s reputation is in tatters based on an anonymous allegation that he committed sexual assault. And this, folks, is why we need to have one simple, standard way of judging whether sexual assault is sexual assault or not. There should be proof—good proof, not just a hairsbreadth of proof—that a crime has been committed. That proof should be given to police. And colleges and universities should get the hell out of the criminal-justice business."

"A young man’s reputation is in tatters based on an anonymous allegation that he committed sexual assault. And this, folks, is why we need to have one simple, standard way of judging whether sexual assault is sexual assault or not. There should be proof—good proof, not just a hairsbreadth of proof—that a crime has been committed. That proof should be given to police. And colleges and universities should get the hell out of the criminal-justice business."

A 25-year-old Milwaukee woman who falsely accused a Port Washington man of sexual assualt is now facing charges in the accusations.Melissa A. Goldbach, 8800 W. Dallas St., is facing a misdemeanor charge of obstructing an officer because of the false allegations she made against Jeremy Unti on Dec. 21. If convicted, she faces up to 9 months in prison and fines of not more than $10,000.

According to criminal complaints, Goldbach told police she had met Unti in the Culver's parking lot in Mequon to exchange a young child the two of them share. Goldbach said she was placing the child in a car seat in the rear of Unti’s SUV when he came behind her and began to put his hands down her pants and grab her until she told him to stop.

Later that day, Goldbach said, she returned to the parking lot where Unti was already parked. Goldbach told police that Unti told her to come and look at a Christmas gift he had purchased the child in the back of his SUV and that when he opened the rear door of the truck — where there actually was not a gift — he then forced her into the back and closed the door. Goldbach also alleged that there were a number of times when Unti forced his hands down her pants and touched her genitals.

Police then arrested Unti, who told police nothing had happened in the Culver's parking lot but that Goldbach had followed Unti to the Marcus Theatre parking lot where they had consensual sex in Unti's vehicle.

Goldbach denied this allegation, but video surveillance from the theatre showed Unti's vehicle moving to a remote location of the parking lot near Goldbach's vehicle; both vehicles stayed parked for some time before simultaneously leaving.

When threatened by the existence of this video, Goldbach eventually admitted to following Unti to the parking lot to partake in sexual activity and also admitted to doing so willingly.

The charges were filed Friday; Goldbach is expected to make her initial court appearance at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 13.

Monday, January 30, 2012

It found them by defining sexual violence in impossibly elastic ways and then letting the surveyors, rather than subjects, determine what counted as an assault. Consider: In a telephone survey with a 30 percent response rate, interviewers did not ask participants whether they had been raped. Instead of such straightforward questions, the CDC researchers described a series of sexual encounters and then they determined whether the responses indicated sexual violation. A sample of 9,086 women was asked, for example, “When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever had vaginal sex with you?” A majority of the 1.3 million women (61.5 percent) the CDC projected as rape victims in 2010 experienced this sort of “alcohol or drug facilitated penetration."

Other survey questions were equally ambiguous. Participants were asked if they had ever had sex because someone pressured them by “telling you lies, making promises about the future they knew were untrue?” All affirmative answers were counted as “sexual violence.” Anyone who consented to sex because a suitor wore her or him down by “repeatedly asking” or “showing they were unhappy” was similarly classified as a victim of violence. The CDC effectively set a stage where each step of physical intimacy required a notarized testament of sober consent.

It found them by defining sexual violence in impossibly elastic ways and then letting the surveyors, rather than subjects, determine what counted as an assault. Consider: In a telephone survey with a 30 percent response rate, interviewers did not ask participants whether they had been raped. Instead of such straightforward questions, the CDC researchers described a series of sexual encounters and then they determined whether the responses indicated sexual violation. A sample of 9,086 women was asked, for example, “When you were drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent, how many people ever had vaginal sex with you?” A majority of the 1.3 million women (61.5 percent) the CDC projected as rape victims in 2010 experienced this sort of “alcohol or drug facilitated penetration."

Other survey questions were equally ambiguous. Participants were asked if they had ever had sex because someone pressured them by “telling you lies, making promises about the future they knew were untrue?” All affirmative answers were counted as “sexual violence.” Anyone who consented to sex because a suitor wore her or him down by “repeatedly asking” or “showing they were unhappy” was similarly classified as a victim of violence. The CDC effectively set a stage where each step of physical intimacy required a notarized testament of sober consent.

Rikki Klieman is a former Massachusetts sex crimes prosecutor, a member of the board of the Rape Treatment Center in Los Angeles, and a fierce champion of rape victims. Unlike so many shrill, extremist voices in the blogosphere, Ms. Klieman understands the balance we always talk about here -- about the need to punish rapists while insuring the innocent aren't punished with them. Serious voices on rape appreciate the balance -- see here.

You need to read the entire article here, but she ends with this:"Let us not forget that those falsely accused are also real victims. They are forever painted by some with a label of 'rapist,' whether the case is dismissed or they are acquitted. I am still haunted by the memory of defending a therapist accused of date rape at a party years ago. There is no question in my mind that the act was consensual. She pursued him vigorously and he rebuffed her attention before she made her complaint. What other course might the case have taken had he sent her flowers or taken her on another date? The specter of the publicity in his professional life and the stress surrounding the progress of the case contributed to his suicide. He is not alone in taking such a desperate step.

"All of society loses when there is a false accusation. Somehow we must encourage real victims to feel safe to report rape knowing that police and prosecutors will have the courage to turn away those who bear false witness. Society itself can become the victim. We don’t want guilty people on the street who will offend again. We want to safeguard the most vulnerable among us. We want to champion those violated. We want to protect the falsely accused."

Rikki Klieman is a former Massachusetts sex crimes prosecutor, a member of the board of the Rape Treatment Center in Los Angeles, and a fierce champion of rape victims. Unlike so many shrill, extremist voices in the blogosphere, Ms. Klieman understands the balance we always talk about here -- about the need to punish rapists while insuring the innocent aren't punished with them. Serious voices on rape appreciate the balance -- see here.

The prison psychologist who phoned in a frantic but phony 911 sexual assault call to persuade her husband that they needed to move to a better neighborhood pleaded out Wednesday to a felony conspiracy charge and was given a non-custodial sentence.When a false rape accusations is a pathetic cry for help from a troubled woman, we need to acknowledge that fact and advocate that the punishment be molded to fit her circumstance. Many of these cases, where a specific man or boy was not named, cry out for therapeutic help more than a custodial senence.

But when the phony claim is the handiwork of a social deviant whose selfishness undermines the social order, our feminist friends need to admit it. They need to acknowledge the harm such a claim does -- not just to any innocent men and boys who might get in trouble for something they didn't do (and that happens even in cases where no one is named), but to sexual assault victims. Every rape lie diminishes the integrity of every legitimate claim.

It is no answer that false rape claims are rare. When they repeat that spin in false rape report after report after report, it starts to ring hollow. The answer is to work to raise the integrity of rape claims by insisting the false accusers be dealt with as what they are -- criminals. (And by false accusers, I'm not referring to women police have decided not to believe -- I'm talking about cases where there is no reasonable doubt that a lie occurred.)

In this case, Martinez was described in a letter to the court from the police officer who investigated the case as a "highly intelligent and manipulative" woman.

In court, Deputy District Attorney Chris Carlson called Martinez's behavior outrageous. He said it served to undermine the interests of true sexual assault victims.

"One of the more egregious parts of this crime was the false sexual assault allegation, which to me is a black mark against true sexual assault victims," Carlson said. "The Police Department – law enforcement – is not a toy to be casually utilized by people to further their own personal agenda. We've got real victims of crime that need (police) help in cases that are legitimate. To send law enforcement off on wild goose chases like this really is an insult to the community."

Martinez was sentenced to five years formal probation and 180 days on the sheriff's work furlough program, which one court official said translates into electronic monitoring. She was also ordered to pay $4,463.32 in restitution to help pay for the police investigation into her bogus report.

The prison psychologist who phoned in a frantic but phony 911 sexual assault call to persuade her husband that they needed to move to a better neighborhood pleaded out Wednesday to a felony conspiracy charge and was given a non-custodial sentence.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

WHEN WILL THE MEDIA STOP BLOWING RAPE ALLEGATIONS INTO LURID MELODRAMAS?

The "happy camper" quote above is from a report on the Greg Kelly rape case. We aren't sure what happened there, but virtually every high profile rape case in recent years has turned out to be false or likely false. By blowing these cases into media circuses at the first whiff of an accusation, the mainstream news media does a grave injustice to the men accused (since they are always named), and it does a lesser disservice to women who are actually raped. When women hear that case after case after case turn out to be false, don't they think twice about reporting that they've been raped?

Here's an idea: let the police investigate and stop blowing accusations into media circuses. Stop painting men accused as if they were rapists. And start punishing women when we learn they've lied about rape. The only way to restore integrity to the cry of rape is to deter the false accusers.

WHEN WILL THE MEDIA STOP BLOWING RAPE ALLEGATIONS INTO LURID MELODRAMAS?

The "happy camper" quote above is from a report on the Greg Kelly rape case. We aren't sure what happened there, but virtually every high profile rape case in recent years has turned out to be false or likely false. By blowing these cases into media circuses at the first whiff of an accusation, the mainstream news media does a grave injustice to the men accused (since they are always named), and it does a lesser disservice to women who are actually raped. When women hear that case after case after case turn out to be false, don't they think twice about reporting that they've been raped?

Here's an idea: let the police investigate and stop blowing accusations into media circuses. Stop painting men accused as if they were rapists. And start punishing women when we learn they've lied about rape. The only way to restore integrity to the cry of rape is to deter the false accusers.

This story, like the Web site that carries it, is the worst kind of progressive excrement, tripe so patently absurd that no refutation is necessary.

If extremist feminists want to know why they are the proverbial "boy who cried wolf" when it comes to sexual assault, it's because they are prone to giving voice to the most outrageous leaps in logic imaginable -- assertions that blink at anything resembling common sense, human decency, and the presumption of innocence.

Newsflash: this isn't 1972, or even '92. Rational people no longer buy into your hokum where a vague accusation is as good as an actual conviction.

This story, like the Web site that carries it, is the worst kind of progressive excrement, tripe so patently absurd that no refutation is necessary.

If extremist feminists want to know why they are the proverbial "boy who cried wolf" when it comes to sexual assault, it's because they are prone to giving voice to the most outrageous leaps in logic imaginable -- assertions that blink at anything resembling common sense, human decency, and the presumption of innocence.

Newsflash: this isn't 1972, or even '92. Rational people no longer buy into your hokum where a vague accusation is as good as an actual conviction.

A woman named Christine Jordan falsely accused a man of rape because he could not recall her name.

Last January, Jordan had met the man on a bus. The two hooked up and ended up having sex at her flat.

Five days later, Jordan saw the man at a pub, but he could not remember her name. Jordan gave him “a very evil look,” and within minutes, police came to arrest him on suspicion of rape.

It turns out Jordan had phoned police, telling them she had been raped by the man. She claimed he followed her to her flat and forced his way in. Police saw through her story and arrested her.

At trial, Jordan clung to her rape fairy tale, but admitted the man did not force his way into her flat.

Nicola Devas, prosecuting said: “The defendant has lied and lied and lied and she has been caught out in these lies. And even when she has been caught out in these lies she has continued to lie. She is clutching to the remnants of that initial account because she can’t bring herself to admit what she has done.”

The jury took less than two hours to unanimously find Jordan guilty of perverting the course of justice. She will be sentenced next month.

Some false rape apologists insist that women don't lie about rape. After all, why would women subject themselves to the ordeal of a rape trial?

Do they really want to know? Add the above case to the list: on this site we've reported on women who've made false rape claims for the following reasons:

▲The accuser’s boyfriend took too long to buy cigarettes.▲Several women didn’t want to pay cab fares, so they accused innocent cab drivers of rape.▲A girl wanted to get back at her teen ex-boyfriend — her rape lie not only got him convicted, but two of his friends as well.▲A woman wanted to get back at her ex-boyfriend for breaking it off, so she falsely accused him of rape and candidly admitted: “I just wanted him to be hurt because of what he’d done.”▲A young woman said she wanted her young ex-boyfriend “to feel extreme pain.”▲A woman's rape lie sent a man to prison for five years because she said she was bored.▲A woman was bent on revenge after a road rage incident.▲A man refused to give his false accuser a beer.▲A maid falsely accused her employer of rape because she didn’t like her workload.▲A girl falsely accused a man of rape for throwing a flower at her.▲A woman caused three men to be interrogated for rapes they didn’t commit because she wanted a day off from work.▲An 18-year-year-old young man was hauled out of class, arrested, and jailed for a month on a random false rape claim by a girl he had never even met.

And I could go on and on and on. I've stopped adding on to this list because it's too depressing.

A woman named Christine Jordan falsely accused a man of rape because he could not recall her name.

Last January, Jordan had met the man on a bus. The two hooked up and ended up having sex at her flat.

Five days later, Jordan saw the man at a pub, but he could not remember her name. Jordan gave him “a very evil look,” and within minutes, police came to arrest him on suspicion of rape.

It turns out Jordan had phoned police, telling them she had been raped by the man. She claimed he followed her to her flat and forced his way in. Police saw through her story and arrested her.

At trial, Jordan clung to her rape fairy tale, but admitted the man did not force his way into her flat.

Nicola Devas, prosecuting said: “The defendant has lied and lied and lied and she has been caught out in these lies. And even when she has been caught out in these lies she has continued to lie. She is clutching to the remnants of that initial account because she can’t bring herself to admit what she has done.”

The jury took less than two hours to unanimously find Jordan guilty of perverting the course of justice. She will be sentenced next month.

Some false rape apologists insist that women don't lie about rape. After all, why would women subject themselves to the ordeal of a rape trial?

Do they really want to know? Add the above case to the list: on this site we've reported on women who've made false rape claims for the following reasons:

▲The accuser’s boyfriend took too long to buy cigarettes.
▲Several women didn’t want to pay cab fares, so they accused innocent cab drivers of rape.
▲A girl wanted to get back at her teen ex-boyfriend — her rape lie not only got him convicted, but two of his friends as well.
▲A woman wanted to get back at her ex-boyfriend for breaking it off, so she falsely accused him of rape and candidly admitted: “I just wanted him to be hurt because of what he’d done.”
▲A young woman said she wanted her young ex-boyfriend “to feel extreme pain.”
▲A woman's rape lie sent a man to prison for five years because she said she was bored.
▲A woman was bent on revenge after a road rage incident.
▲A man refused to give his false accuser a beer.
▲A maid falsely accused her employer of rape because she didn’t like her workload.
▲A girl falsely accused a man of rape for throwing a flower at her.
▲A woman caused three men to be interrogated for rapes they didn’t commit because she wanted a day off from work.
▲An 18-year-year-old young man was hauled out of class, arrested, and jailed for a month on a random false rape claim by a girl he had never even met.

And I could go on and on and on. I've stopped adding on to this list because it's too depressing.

Police in the US have paid R15-million to a South African expatriate who was jailed over false claims and faked statements that he raped his mentally disabled daughter.

Americans reacted with disbelief and outrage this week after an ABC TV documentary detailed a conspiracy between prosecutors, social workers and school authorities to destroy Julian Wendrow's family.

Wendrow, 56, is a teacher and paint-store owner. He was arrested at his home in Michigan days before a planned family holiday to Johannesburg in December 2007. He was jailed for 80 days, 70 of them in a 2x2m solitary confinement cell, and threatened with life imprisonment while county officials publicly described him as a rapist and a paedophile.

His wife, Tali, was also taken to jail, fitted with an electronic tether and placed under house arrest for alleged complicity in the "rapes". As a result she lost her job as a research attorney.

Their severely autistic and mute daughter, Aislinn, then 14, was put in foster care and their 13-year-old son, Ian, who also has a mild form of autism, was placed in juvenile detention.

Horrified US TV viewers watched a police interrogation video in which detectives mocked Ian and pretended to have video of his father molesting his sister.

The whole drama, according to court papers, was triggered when a school teacher's assistant pressed Aislinn's fingers on a computer keyboard to spell out a made-up rape accusation.

A physical exam ultimately found no evidence of abuse.

On Friday Wendrow told the Sunday Times he was horrified to learn of his son's "brutal interrogation".

Of his time in jail, he said: "At night, as I lay in my cell, I would weep ... I had no knowledge about where my kids were, who was comforting them."

He said as the case unfolded "it became patently clear that all of the nefarious agents of law enforcement arraigned against us were hell bent on demolishing us for their personal and political aggrandisement".

Now, after being awarded a R15-million settlement from Michigan police, an angry Wendrow is suing some 20 other defendants for damages.

Wendrow told ABC: "What I would really like is for the system to be fixed. Somebody can say something, can misconstrue, make an allegation ... and before you can blink, you are in a cauldron of chaos."

The drama began when Aislinn allegedly typed a message at school: "My dad gets me up, banges (sic) me and then we have breakfast. He puts his hands on my private parts."

She allegedly wrote other claims about being raped and living in a house full of weapons and pornography. Her claims were made with a technique called "facilitated communication" (FC) - in which a trained person guides a severely autistic person's hand over a keyboard, like a Ouija board.

It is dismissed by the American Psychology Association as "not valid". Aislinn's facilitator had just two hours of training in the technique.

Aislinn had the developmental age of a two-year-old and could not understand questions. Wendrow's attorney, Deb Gordon, said every word in the girl's statements was invented by her school-assigned facilitator, Cynthia Scarsella, or her teacher.

The case against Wendrow collapsed when a judge told Scarsella to leave the room and asked Aislinn: "What is the colour of your sweater?" Not knowing the question after returning, Scarsella could only help Aislinn type: "JIBHJIH". Asked if she had a brother or sister, she typed "3FE65".

Gordon said: "No matter how ridiculous the claims in this case, the law enforcement system just took it literally."

No weapons or pornography were found in the house.

A judge described the prosecution of the Wendrows as "a runaway train".

Gordon said an ambitious prosecutor "geared for a high-profile sexual abuse case" and "irresponsible" school authorities contributed to the "horrific persecution" of the family. "Lives were torn apart because everyone wanted to believe she had made these sensational, ridiculous claims; no one was interested in the truth," she said. "She does not know what the letter A means; she doesn't recognise her own name. It would have been so easy to determine the claims were false."

An autism expert, Dr Howard Shane from Harvard University, told the Sunday Times he did not believe Scarsella had deliberately framed Wendrow.

Instead, he said a phenomenon called "saviour effect" had commonly caused even experienced facilitators using the technique to make up stories about disabled patients.

"Nothing about this technique is real; it's manipulation and brainwashing," Shane said.

In a sworn affidavit, Scarsella denied fabricating Aislinn's words. The Oakland county prosecutor's office accused Wendrow of "hypocrisy" because he wanted his daughter to use the technique.

Gordon admitted that Wendrow had insisted that Aislinn's school use the FC method. But she accused the school of "humouring" the family by allowing a "clearly bogus and dangerous technique".

Worse, she said, the family were shown poetry and algebra which the school said their daughter had "produced".

Gage County authorities dropped all charges against a Wymore man Friday and arrested the woman who accused him of a sexual assault on suspicion of lying about the incident.

The Gage County Attorney’s Office charged Jennifer Valenta of Wilber with perjury, false reporting, obstructing government operations, tampering with evidence and two counts of prostitution.On Thursday, Valenta admitted to fabricating allegations that Elliot Hawkins, 48, and three other men gang raped her at Big Indian Recreation Area in southern Gage County, according to a news release from the county attorney’s office.

Hawkins’ attorney, Robert Kortus of Lincoln, said dismissal of the charges at the county attorney’s request did not come as a surprise.

“The hope was the truth would come out and the truth would vindicate him. And that seems to be what has happened,” Kortus said Friday night.

"I certainly am grateful they (the sheriff’s office) made the effort to keep the case open and investigate the facts of that allegation to determine whether they were truthful,” Kortus said.

According to the Gage County Attorney’s Office, an investigation revealed evidence did not support the allegations made by Valenta, 27. The investigation included numerous interviews, an examination of physical evidence gathered at the scene, DNA testing and a forensic examination of photographs of the injuries Valenta said she suffered during the reported assault.

Chief Deputy Gage County Attorney Rick Schreiner said a lot of time and money have been spent on the case. He said DNA testing was done at the University of Nebraska Medical Center because of a six-month wait at the State Crime Lab.

“I see it as an issue with restitution,” Schreiner said. “There’s a lot of money wrapped up in this, and I’m going to consider pursuing restitution as part of sentencing based on the cost of the investigation.”Schreiner said Friday’s arrest isn’t the end of the story, and Hawkins still could face charges.

“We’re not totally ruling out filing a different charge on Elliot,” Schreiner said. “She agreed to have sex with him for money and as you can see, she’s charged with prostitution. And there’s two sides to prostitution.”

Kortus declined to comment on the possibility of future charges against Hawkins, but did say, “right now things are not as rosy as they might be.”

“Right now there is no solicitation charge against my client,” Kortus said.

Schreiner said he doesn’t believe the Gage County Sheriff’s Office acted too quickly in arresting Hawkins. He said it was his decision to proceed and “the system worked.”

“It was an excellent investigation,” Schreiner said. “It was a very fair investigation and it was a search for the truth. There’s a lot of credit that needs to go to those folks.”

Gage County Sheriff Millard “Gus” Gustafson said his office continues to look into the situation, but declined to elaborate.

“We’re still actively looking into it. I don’t want anything out there that is going to jeopardize that,” he said.Gustafson said deputies reacted appropriately to the initial report of a sexual assault.

“Your No. 1 concern when you have a report of information that comes to you like that, the first concern you have is the safety of the alleged victim. So you act on that,” Gustafson said.

While the recent development didn’t quite surprise Gustafson, it did frustrate him, he said.

“It has taken a lot of taxpayer money and a lot of resources to investigate this. And to find out your victim was not up front with you is very frustrating,” Gustafson said.

Schreiner said he hopes the case doesn’t deter others from reporting sexual assaults, saying this was a rare case in which the accusations were false.

“We hope this doesn’t chill reports of sexual assault,” Schreiner said. “We want folks to know that we’ll pursue them vigorously and we’ll investigate them thoroughly in a search for the truth.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, that victim is telling us the truth and we want to pursue that case to close off any avenue of escape for that defendant so we have a solid case going forward.”Valenta is set for her first court appearance on Monday.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Star Ledger editorial board wants bail "reform" in New Jersey -- to protect the public from potentially dangerous criminals. The editorial is, at least, honest: ". . . the reality is that we dole out punishment before convictions at every level today." Read it here.But the editorial board also remembers that protecting the public from the accused isn't the only legitimate consideration. It is also imperative to protect the presumptively innocent from the system.

"If we imprison people before trial, that underscores the need for more speedy trials. Alex Shalom of the New Jersey ACLU, a former public defender, represented a man charged with rape who was held for more than a year and, when he asked for a speedy trial, prosecutors said the DNA test was still not complete. After nearly two years in jail, the man was acquitted."

The editorial board adds: "And before a judge denies bail, a hearing should be held to determine the defendant’s actual danger to the community. This judgment can’t rely on bias or intuition."

We've previously complained on this blog about the injustice in freeing some men accused of crimes based on their ability to pay, while poor men -- often black -- are forced to serve a de facto sentence before even a scrap of evidence is admitted at trial. (Remember Hofstra?) This is barbaric in the extreme, and someday, it will be widely considered as such (akin to the old practice of paying a substitute to answer the military draft).

The Star Ledger editorial board wants bail "reform" in New Jersey -- to protect the public from potentially dangerous criminals. The editorial is, at least, honest: ". . . the reality is that we dole out punishment before convictions at every level today." Read it here.

Investigators say a 27-year-old woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a man posing as a police officer earlier this month was lying.Heather Speicher now faces charges of Attempting to Influence a Public Official, a class-four felony.

The Larimer County Sheriff’s Office plans to seek restitution for the resources it expended investigating the case.

Speicher told authorities that she was pulled over in her vehicle on the night of Jan. 5 and then assaulted by a man who purported to be a law enforcement officer.She provided description which led to the release of a composite sketch of the “fictitious suspect,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

Speicher was being held at the Larimer County Jail on a $2,500 bond.

The Sheriff’s Office did not offer a motive for why Speicher would have concocted the story.

“Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said it is important to fully investigate any allegation of sexual assault as well as police impersonation; however, false reports of this nature redirect very limited resources that are needed for other important investigations,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Schulz.

“While this report proved to be false, incidents of this nature do occur. Motorists are still reminded to be cautious when stopped by an unmarked or uneasily identified vehicle. They are encouraged to turn their flashers on and drive safely to a well-lit populated area and/or call 911 to verify the identity and location of officers. Motorists are further encouraged to stay in their vehicle until an additional officer in a marked vehicle arrives. Law enforcement vehicles are typically later models with significant emergency light systems.”

Joe Paterno is dead, his legacy as one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports tarnished by his termination -- unjust, I believe -- on the grounds that he inappropriately failed to pursue vigorously an allegation of child sex abuse (see here, here and here).Paterno's death and absence as a witness will likely have little or no effect on the trial of Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant coach who was the subject of the allegation reported to Paterno by a Penn State graduate assistant coach, Mike McQueary. Paterno's only information about the Sandusky issues appears to have been the hearsay report by McQueary, and thus it is unlikely that he would have been a witness.

Paterno's unavailability, however, may have a considerable impact on the trials of Tim Curley, the former university athletic director, and Gary Schultz, a former university senior vice president, both of whom have been charged with failure to report the suspected child abuse and perjury. Both have been charged with falsely testifying that McQueary, when he spoke with them, did not mention serious or criminal sexual conduct. McQueary, whom the grand jury report (presumably written by the prosecutors) deemed "extremely credible," testified that he reported the specific act to both Curley and Schultz, and seemingly also to Paterno. Paterno's grand jury testimony, however, apparently was that what McQueary related to him was far less specific, and thus more ambiguous. Accordingly, while the grand jury report indicated that Paterno would be a corroborative witness for the prosecution in that he was told by McQueary of the alleged "sexual exploitation" and then reported what McQueary had said to Curley and Schultz, his testimony would apparently also have to an extent corroborated their defenses that McQueary was less explicit than he now claims.

In another highly-publicized investigation involving a former college sports coach, former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, it has been reported that two of the four men who had accused Fine of molesting them when they were children have admitted that they committed perjury in connection with the case. One has admitted that he lied when he claimed Fine molested him. The second, the only one whose allegations fall within the applicable criminal statute of limitations, while still claiming that abuse occurred, has admitted doctoring purportedly supporting emails.

The Fine situation is a reminder that not every allegation of child sexual abuse is true. Indeed, in my experience, there is a far higher percentage of false accusations of sexual misconduct than of any other criminal activity. Thus, such accusations should be scrutinized especially carefully before they are acted upon by law enforcement or others.

Joe Paterno is dead, his legacy as one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports tarnished by his termination -- unjust, I believe -- on the grounds that he inappropriately failed to pursue vigorously an allegation of child sex abuse (see here, here and here).

Two teen-age girls who told authorities they were thrown out of a van after one of the girls was sexually assaulted were ultimately found to have been at an all-night house party — and not telling the truth about the events of the night.Deputies from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office were called to Panera Bread at 6:38 a.m. Monday morning after an 18-year-old girl called 911 to say her 17-year-old friend "may have been raped" and that the two girls, both from Clinton Township, were thrown from a red van near the Rochester Road restaurant.

When the deputies arrived at the scene, the 17-year-old girl had disappeared; she was discovered two hours later sleeping at a friend's home on Parke Street in Rochester Hills, according to a sheriff's office report.

The Rochester Hills Fire Department was called to transport the girl to Crittenton Hospital Medical Center; when fire department personnel arrived, "the 17-year-old female was found to be highly intoxicated and had taken some prescription pills ... the victim became combative toward fire department personnel and was out of control and had to be restrained," the report stated.

An investigation determined there was no criminal sexual assault and that the girl had gotten into a fight with another female at the all-night party before she and her friend were dropped off at Panera Bread.

Two teen-age girls who told authorities they were thrown out of a van after one of the girls was sexually assaulted were ultimately found to have been at an all-night house party — and not telling the truth about the events of the night.

Monday, January 23, 2012

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that a woman made up a story about being raped.

Autum Michelle Hobbs, 21, of the 4100 block of Jody Circle, was charged with filing a false report with law enforcement officers.

She was arrested Monday.

Investigators said Hobbs claimed that she was kidnapped by three men Dec. 30 as she walked along Cumberland Road. Hobbs said she was held against her will, bound, threatened, beaten, and raped by the men.

Hobbs told detectives she was held for five to six hours and later dropped off at a different location and had to walk home.

But detectives said they found that at the time of the alleged rape, that Hobbs had actually been at a local bar with a female friend. While they were there, a fight broke out and both were forced to leave the premises.

Hobbs was booked into the Cumberland County Detention Center and later released on bond.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

▲"One of the big lies of 2011 (though hard to believe on its face) was that told by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Libya as a means to justify regime change in that country – a goal not authorized by either the U.S. Congress or the UN. Thus, with a straight face, Ms. Clinton told the press that Gaddafi was passing out Viagra to his troops so they could go out and rape dissidents en masse, and that the troops were indeed engaging in mass rapes. Of course, the compliant media was more than happy to spread such outlandish accusations. What the press was more reluctant to do was to publish Amnesty International’s later report that there was absolutely no factual support for these accusations. As Amnesty International reported, 'Not only have we not met any victims, but we have not even met any persons who have met victims.'” http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/20/seven-truths-inconvenient-to-u-s-foreign-policy/

▲You don't have to be a "perfect" victim to have your rapist convicted. A girl recanted her rape allegation but the jury convicted the man anyway. I hope, and pray, that the prosecution had more to go on than just an unreliable child witness. Every objective observer, including the liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court, has noted concerns about child testimony in rape cases. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/01/despite_victims_change_of_stor.html

▲Here's a typical "rape" case -- http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_19784277 -- where the charges were dropped because the district attorney doesn't know what the hell happened. If this incident were looked at by the representatives of the sexual grievance industry who do rape studies, it would be included as a "rape" only because there is no definitive evidence that it was a lie. In fact, it should be classified in an entirely separate category of "unknowns" where the vast majority of rape claims would end up if the surveyors were in any sense honest. Instead they are happy to have us believe that if it can't be definitively called a lie, it must have been a rape. This canard would not be a concern except that the sexual grievance industry uses their "statistics" to justify more and more draconian rape "reforms," as we've discussed here many times, which place innocent men and boys at ever greater risk. Biggest example last year: the "Dear Colleague" letter than lowered the standard of proof in college sex disciplinary proceedings.

▲"One of the big lies of 2011 (though hard to believe on its face) was that told by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about Libya as a means to justify regime change in that country – a goal not authorized by either the U.S. Congress or the UN. Thus, with a straight face, Ms. Clinton told the press that Gaddafi was passing out Viagra to his troops so they could go out and rape dissidents en masse, and that the troops were indeed engaging in mass rapes. Of course, the compliant media was more than happy to spread such outlandish accusations. What the press was more reluctant to do was to publish Amnesty International’s later report that there was absolutely no factual support for these accusations. As Amnesty International reported, 'Not only have we not met any victims, but we have not even met any persons who have met victims.'” http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/20/seven-truths-inconvenient-to-u-s-foreign-policy/

▲You don't have to be a "perfect" victim to have your rapist convicted. A girl recanted her rape allegation but the jury convicted the man anyway. I hope, and pray, that the prosecution had more to go on than just an unreliable child witness. Every objective observer, including the liberals on the U.S. Supreme Court, has noted concerns about child testimony in rape cases. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/01/despite_victims_change_of_stor.html

▲Here's a typical "rape" case -- http://www.willitsnews.com/ci_19784277 -- where the charges were dropped because the district attorney doesn't know what the hell happened. If this incident were looked at by the representatives of the sexual grievance industry who do rape studies, it would be included as a "rape" only because there is no definitive evidence that it was a lie. In fact, it should be classified in an entirely separate category of "unknowns" where the vast majority of rape claims would end up if the surveyors were in any sense honest. Instead they are happy to have us believe that if it can't be definitively called a lie, it must have been a rape. This canard would not be a concern except that the sexual grievance industry uses their "statistics" to justify more and more draconian rape "reforms," as we've discussed here many times, which place innocent men and boys at ever greater risk. Biggest example last year: the "Dear Colleague" letter than lowered the standard of proof in college sex disciplinary proceedings.

Friday, January 20, 2012

A follow-up to this story. In that earlier report we explained that the lawsuit filed by William McCormick III and his parents against Brown University, Marcella Dresdale (the student who accused McCormick of raping her), and Richard Dresdale (the accuser's father), has been settled on undisclosed terms.

We don't know the terms of the settlement; however, a recording of a discussion prior to the settlement has been released that, if accurate, shows the mediator for the case suggesting that the case should settle for significant money: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/brown-mccormick/

A follow-up to this story. In that earlier report we explained that the lawsuit filed by William McCormick III and his parents against Brown University, Marcella Dresdale (the student who accused McCormick of raping her), and Richard Dresdale (the accuser's father), has been settled on undisclosed terms.

We don't know the terms of the settlement; however, a recording of a discussion prior to the settlement has been released that, if accurate, shows the mediator for the case suggesting that the case should settle for significant money: http://www.golocalprov.com/news/brown-mccormick/

Lawyers acting on behalf of a former local man and and his son have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the town and seven former and current police officers alleging they withheld evidence from defense lawyers during the criminal investigation and subsequent prosecution of both men for sexual assault of minors.

Both men were convicted and spent time in prison before they were freed after the missing evidence came to light.The cause of action or claim filed in the United States District Court, District of New Hampshire on Dec. 9, 2011 alleges current Police Chief Ryan Heath (an officer at the time of the investigation) and former Alton Police Department employees Kevin Iwans, Glenna Heath-Roberts, Edward Correia, Tracy Shattuck, Tyler Hackett and Grant M. Nichols withheld 226 pages of material and exculpatory evidence during the separate investigations and subsequent prosecution of the two.

Only Heath remains with the Alton Police Department.

The details of the suit available electronically through the federal court Website are heavily redacted and supporting documents sealed for electronic accessing by an order of United States magistrate Judge Ladya McCafferty. The names of the two plaintiffs are not revealed. This story is based on the electronically available redacted complaint.

The elder of the two men was ultimately convicted of and sentenced to serve up to 40 years in state prison for three counts of sexual misconduct with a child.

According to the suit, the elder plaintiff was convicted on Feb. 25, 2009 of three counts of sexual misconduct against one child. In December of 2009, Judge Larry Smukler granted the man a new trial and all charges against him were dropped altogether on Oct. 25, 2010.

A spokesman for the N.H. Department of Corrections said he was incarcerated from April 9, 2008 until Feb. 12, 2010.

The younger man pleaded guilty on June 9, 2007 of two counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against his stepdaughter. Judge James O'Neill vacated both his sentences on July 1, 2010.

Prison records indicate he was incarcerated in the N.H. State Prison from June 9, 2008 until July 2, 2010 when he was transferred to Belknap County. He was released on July 12, 2010.

The suit claims the exculpatory evidence was uncovered by Belknap County Attorney Office prosecutors in February of 2009 while they were preparing their second case against the elder man for allegedly assaulting a second child.

Count 16 of the suit says the prosecution found "exculpatory evidence, consisting of pages A1-199 inclusive and B1-B27, which had not previously been disclosed to either the plaintiff or his counsel, even though the documents had been in the possession of the Alton Police Department for approximately six, or more years."

The civil suit claims the withheld information included paperwork by Corriea in September of 2002 stating the alleged second victim "came to his office to complain about (a Rochester, NY man ) by stating (the man) had been angry at (initials) and had decided to make a false report of sexual assault against (initials) stepfather, with the sole purpose of making (initials) life miserable."

Alleged exculpatory materials also included statements made to Iwans that one victim was allegedly assaulted by a different man with the same first name and a similar statement made in 2005 to Nichols, and an undated report of a similar nature made by Heath-Roberts.

The civil rights suit has four components all citing the Civil Rights Act of 1871, last amended in 1983 and the rights secured by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and well as similar rights established under the New Hampshire Constitution.

There are four separate causes of action: a civil rights violation filed for the father, a civil rights violation filed for the son, a civil rights violation against the defendant the (town) of Alton and supplemental claims against all of the defendants individually including a claim of malicious prosecution.

Lawyers acting on behalf of a former local man and and his son have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the town and seven former and current police officers alleging they withheld evidence from defense lawyers during the criminal investigation and subsequent prosecution of both men for sexual assault of minors.

Both men were convicted and spent time in prison before they were freed after the missing evidence came to light.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

60-year-old Turtle Lake man, previously accused of sexually assaulting a child in his care, has had the criminal charges against him dropped after an 11-year-old Birchwood girl admitted she made up a story that he touched her sexually.Paul L. Burritt of 267 U.S. Highway 8 in Turtle Lake is not just "not guilty" of the accusations made against him, he is clearly "innocent" of all charges, said Polk County District Attorney Dan Steffen, who said in a phone interview Tuesday that this is "a prosecutor's worst nightmare."

It couldn't have been an easy time for the Handi-Lift transportation van driver, either. Burritt was charged in Polk County in mid-December with 1st degree child sexual assault - sexual contact with person under age of 13, and child enticement, after an 11-year-old girl alleged he brought her to his Turtle Lake home and groped her breasts and genitals over her clothing while she waited to be brought home. Burritt was transporting the child from Impact Counseling in Hayward on Wednesday, Nov. 23, to her Birchwood home. Burritt maintained his innocence when being interviewed by Turtle Lake police investigators on Dec. 7 after the child initially reported her allegations to counselors and police on Friday, Dec. 2.

Security video and GPS tracking devices confirmed that Burritt was telling the truth: he took the child from Hayward directly to Birchwood, and only made one wrong turn during the journey as he was unfamiliar with the route and was not her regular driver.

The child told police that Burritt took her to his home, let his six dogs out on the property, touched her in a sexual manner and then struck her twice in the knee when she resisted his advances and slammed the door on his hand. Burritt had showed police his uninjured hand on Wednesday, Dec. 7, two weeks after the assault was alleged to have happened.

Steffen said in other circumstances, the investigation would have continued - including gathering security footage - before any charges were brought. However, because of Burritt's occupation and ongoing contact with children, the district attorney's office believed it was necessary to act quickly in order to potentially protect other children in Burritt's care who might also be harmed, had the story proven true, Steffen said.

"When we made the charges, our alleged victim had given us detailed information, including background information that provided details" allegedly supporting the child's story, Steffen said. "Due to his occupation, we believe we had to move quickly."

When the security video and GPS data showed that what Burritt was saying was true, police investigators re-interviewed the girl, confronted her with the contrary evidence, and she admitted making the story up. Steffen said the background information the girl provided, including rough details of what the outside of his home property looked like and the number of dogs he had, came about from discussions during the bus ride between Burritt and the child. The girl also allegedly asked to use Burritt's cell phone, which had personal photos on the display screen, Burritt said.

On Wednesday, Jan. 4, all charges against Burritt were dismissed on a prosecutor's motion and Steffen is working to have them expunged from the criminal computer records. The child has been referred to juvenile authorities for possible consequences for her lying and making false allegations. A phone call to Burritt's defense attorney, Aaron A. Nelson of Door Drill & Skow in New Richmond, was not returned by press time.

Wisconsin online court records, or CCAP, show that the charges were dismissed on the prosecutor's motion with prejudice (meaning they cannot be refiled) and without court costs, but do not indicate whether the court or a victims' compensation fund will compensate Mr. Burritt for his defense attorney fees.

60-year-old Turtle Lake man, previously accused of sexually assaulting a child in his care, has had the criminal charges against him dropped after an 11-year-old Birchwood girl admitted she made up a story that he touched her sexually.

MIDDLETOWN — Middletown police have learned that the 12-year-old girl who said she was nearly abducted this week made up the story.

During the third interview Friday night, the juvenile, a Franklin Junior High School student, said while she was waiting for a bus on Wednesday morning, she heard a noise in a wooded area, started to run home, fell and scraped her hand.

Earlier, she told police that she was injured following a brief struggle with the man who tried to abduct her at knife point. She told detectives she did not see a subject in the wooded area as she had said earlier.

Detective Steve Winters said the girl will not be charged with any crime.

MIDDLETOWN — Middletown police have learned that the 12-year-old girl who said she was nearly abducted this week made up the story.

During the third interview Friday night, the juvenile, a Franklin Junior High School student, said while she was waiting for a bus on Wednesday morning, she heard a noise in a wooded area, started to run home, fell and scraped her hand.

Earlier, she told police that she was injured following a brief struggle with the man who tried to abduct her at knife point. She told detectives she did not see a subject in the wooded area as she had said earlier.

Detective Steve Winters said the girl will not be charged with any crime.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The world is a complicated place with lots more grays than black-and-whites, even when it comes to -- dare I say it? -- gender issues. Too often, some in the men's rights movement present gray issues as black-and-white, and that only detracts from the issues that really are black-and-white.

Here's one that's black-and-white. In family law court, there is a widespread, systemic bias against fathers. When the father at issue is a good father, a caring father, a father who wants to be involved in his children's lives, that bias can be a grave injustice.

If we ever want to achieve gender equality -- I mean real gender equality -- that's both fair to men and that allows more women to strive for greater achievement in the workplace, we need to treat dads as real parents, not as mommy's helpers who perform their fatherly duties at mother's whim. And we need to insist that our judicial system not be used as a sword to skewer good fathers.

The world is a complicated place with lots more grays than black-and-whites, even when it comes to -- dare I say it? -- gender issues. Too often, some in the men's rights movement present gray issues as black-and-white, and that only detracts from the issues that really are black-and-white.

Here's one that's black-and-white. In family law court, there is a widespread, systemic bias against fathers. When the father at issue is a good father, a caring father, a father who wants to be involved in his children's lives, that bias can be a grave injustice.

If we ever want to achieve gender equality -- I mean real gender equality -- that's both fair to men and that allows more women to strive for greater achievement in the workplace, we need to treat dads as real parents, not as mommy's helpers who perform their fatherly duties at mother's whim. And we need to insist that our judicial system not be used as a sword to skewer good fathers.

Since 2008, four prisoners in Washington State have been exonerated through DNA testing and other evidence. Advocates for granting them compensation say it’s the right thing to do, even in tough budgetary times.Of the four wrongfully convicted men, Alan Northrop did the most time behind bars. Now that he’s out, he’s trying to put the pieces of his life back together.

I recently moderated a forum at the University of Washington Tacoma, where Northrop was a featured speaker. As he stepped to the microphone, he hesitated, taken aback by the crowd of 400 plus who came to hear him. After all, he spent years in prison trying to get someone to listen.

The nightmare begins

In 1993, Northrop and a friend, Larry Davis, were charged with the brutal rape of a woman near Vancouver, Wash. Northrop was picked up by police because of his resemblance to a composite sketch of the rapist.

“Of course, I said I didn’t do it. I’m not the one,” he said.

Northrop says, at the time, nerves caused him to fail a lie detector test. Then, the woman who was raped picked him out of a line up and the case went to trial.

“She pointed me out in the courtroom and that was pretty devastating,” he said.

Northrop was convicted. He was in prison for 17 years. All of his appeals were denied. He had no other legal recourse.

A glimmer of hope

In 2001, Northrop wrote a letter to the Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) at the University of Washington. The Project, under the direction of Jacqueline McMurtrie, agreed to take his case. McMurtrie says, like most of the cases they take on, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome. For one thing, they had to seek testing of DNA evidence collected at the time of the crime.

When the results of the tests finally came back, they proved that Northrop and Davis couldn’t have committed the rape.

In 2010, they were both exonerated and released from prison.

Life after exoneration

Northrop says it feels “awesome” to be out, but it’s been very hard to adjust to life outside the prison.

“Even little things where you have to make a decision, I’ll panic,” he said.

He says there’s really no way to make up for what he lost. When he was sent away, he left behind three children under the age of 5.

“My kids grew up without me. That disturbs me when I think about that,” he said.

He says he’s still filled with a lot of anger over being wrongly convicted and spending so much time in prison.

Music has helped him. He was a drummer in a rock band before he went away and is now playing again, in a band called Aqua Vitae.

“What happened is what happened and I’m just trying to get going again, you know, start over,” Northrop said.

No apology

Northrop was asked by someone in the audience if the prosecutor who put him away has ever apologized.

“No,” he says.

Northrop has testified several times in Olympia in favor of a bill that would provide financial compensation to people who’ve been exonerated.

A bill being considered in the current legislative session (HB 2221) would give innocent people who’ve been imprisoned:

Since 2008, four prisoners in Washington State have been exonerated through DNA testing and other evidence. Advocates for granting them compensation say it’s the right thing to do, even in tough budgetary times.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

The tragedy of the sunken cruise ship has got jaded newspaper hacks churning out even more crap than usual, and a lot of it is about how -- horrors! -- "women and children" were not evacuated first.

Oh, what to make of these dreaded modern men!

The fact is, chivalry does not comport with modern notions of gender equality, and no rational person thinks otherwise. In my personal experience, the most chivalrous men -- the ones who put women on the proverbial pedestal -- are usually not especially eager to treat women as equals in the business world, or anywhere else.

The tragedy of the sunken cruise ship has got jaded newspaper hacks churning out even more crap than usual, and a lot of it is about how -- horrors! -- "women and children" were not evacuated first.

Oh, what to make of these dreaded modern men!

The fact is, chivalry does not comport with modern notions of gender equality, and no rational person thinks otherwise. In my personal experience, the most chivalrous men -- the ones who put women on the proverbial pedestal -- are usually not especially eager to treat women as equals in the business world, or anywhere else.

A disturbing You Tube video shows a seemingly unconscious, motionless man in an LSU shirt slumped in a chair, his head pressed to a table, and two fast-food containers on his back. Young people who appear to be University of Alabama fans proceed to mock, sexually assault, and otherwise assault him.The New Orleans Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit is aware of the online video and has reviewed it. The apparent victim, as well as everyone involved in the incident, is unknown, and no one has filed a complaint or come forward. "In sexual assault cases, victims make the ultimate decision to inform police so that we can thoroughly investigate a situation," a police spokeswoman wrote. "Should that person in this video decide to come to us, we will launch a complete investigation."

I'm confused. Shouldn't the police be asking for information about the incident from anyone who might know about it? The apparent perpetrators committed what appear to be degrading acts against an innocent member of society. The fact that the man was incapacitated doesn't give the apparent perpetrators license to use him as their their human plaything. Society's paramount interest in cases of this nature should be to bring these people to justice so that they are less likely to do it to others.

And so what if the alleged victim doesn't want to cooperate? That certainly would make the prosecution more difficult, but the incident has been captured on video. In any event, an incapacitated victim wouldn't be able to shed as much light on what happened as the video does. The video, not the apparent victim, would be the state's star witness.

Sexual assault is no more a "private" crime than is murder or robbery. When a dead body is found in the woods, police don't issue statements proclaiming there won't be any prosecution unless the victim comes forward.

Some insist that the alleged victim of a sexual assault or rape should decide whether to prosecute. They reason that it is unjust to force a victim to endure the prosecution of such a crime if the victim doesn't want to come forward.

That argument has a certain appeal, but it ultimately must give way to larger interests. While it is rare that a sexual assault case can be prosecuted without the cooperation of the victim, where it can be done (and I submit this might be one of those cases), it is more unjust not to prosecute since not prosecuting allows a criminal deviant to go unpunished to prey on other innocent members of society.

A disturbing You Tube video shows a seemingly unconscious, motionless man in an LSU shirt slumped in a chair, his head pressed to a table, and two fast-food containers on his back. Young people who appear to be University of Alabama fans proceed to mock, sexually assault, and otherwise assault him.

Last year, Lisa Wright, 20, of Inverness (a city in the Scottish Highlands), asked a man if she could stay at his house for reasons the newspaper account doesn't explain. The man made up a bed on his couch for her in the living room. Apparently, she had other ideas. Wright had made a "sexual advance" on the man, which he twice rejected.

The spurned Ms. Wright stormed out of the house and later told two female police officers that the man had indecently assaulted her and forced her to smoke heroin.

Police officers had concerns about her claims, the newspaper account reveals, and Wright confessed to making them up four days later.

Sheriff Neilson said the offence had no doubt led to significant distress and upset to the accused man, and cost to the public purse. Her sentence? 210 hours of community service. Apparently the "significant distress and upset" doesn't warrant a serious sentence.

Men are constantly told that "no means no." Women should hear the same message. And when a man says "no," they shouldn't think it is their right to make a false rape claim to get even with him. Unfortunately, the sentence imposed here won't deter women from lying about rape.

Last year, Lisa Wright, 20, of Inverness (a city in the Scottish Highlands), asked a man if she could stay at his house for reasons the newspaper account doesn't explain. The man made up a bed on his couch for her in the living room. Apparently, she had other ideas. Wright had made a "sexual advance" on the man, which he twice rejected.

The spurned Ms. Wright stormed out of the house and later told two female police officers that the man had indecently assaulted her and forced her to smoke heroin.

Police officers had concerns about her claims, the newspaper account reveals, and Wright confessed to making them up four days later.

Sheriff Neilson said the offence had no doubt led to significant distress and upset to the accused man, and cost to the public purse. Her sentence? 210 hours of community service. Apparently the "significant distress and upset" doesn't warrant a serious sentence.

Men are constantly told that "no means no." Women should hear the same message. And when a man says "no," they shouldn't think it is their right to make a false rape claim to get even with him. Unfortunately, the sentence imposed here won't deter women from lying about rape.

A follow-up to our story here. A judge ordered an eight-year prison sentence Tuesday for a San Antonio woman who authorities said instigated the murder of a boyfriend by lying to another boyfriend about a rape that never occurred.Melissa Ann Ramos, 23, was originally charged with manslaughter in the death of Nathan Ramirez, who was 20 when he was gunned down in June 2007 behind the North Side sandwich shop where he worked.

But as part of a plea agreement reached in November, she pleaded no contest to robbery.

Ramos is the third of four defendants to be sentenced by state District Judge Ron Rangel in the case. Alleged gunman John McBurnett got a 40-year term after a jury found him guilty of murder in September 2010. Another jury convicted Ramos' other boyfriend, James “Clay” Kelly, of murder for prompting the shooting and the judge also gave him 40 years.

Prosecutors Miguel Najera and Ashley Botard declined to comment on the case because the final defendant, John “Bubba” Rodriguez, who testified against his co-defendants, hasn't been sentenced.Prosecutors have said Ramos lied to Kelly about being raped because she was cheating on him while he was serving time in jail.

Ramos, who wasn't present at the shooting, expressed remorse Tuesday as she asked the judge for deferred adjudication probation. Defense attorney Dennis Moreno described his client's actions as a youthful mistake that spun out of hand.

Ramirez's sister, however, wasn't as forgiving as she read aloud a victim impact statement after the sentence was announced. Of all the defendants, Ramos is the one that is hated the most, Melissa Krueger said.

“My brother's death lies in the palm of your hand,” she said. “You are a coward. Because you wanted to be promiscuous and cheat, my brother had to pay.”

Robbery is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to ask for no more than eight years as part of the plea deal.